Materials and methods described herein relate to modified porous poly(hexahydrotriazine) (PHT) polymers.
Hospital acquired infections, nosocomial infections, affect about 10% of all hospital patients in the United States, resulting in nearly 100,000 deaths annually. Consequently, considerable efforts are dedicated to developing antimicrobial surfaces and filtration methods to prevent the spreading of microorganisms in a clinical setting. One method of preparing antimicrobial surfaces involves the use of silver nanoparticles, a well-known particle capable of efficient contact killing of microorganisms. Furthermore, the ability to produce nanoparticles at a surface/interface offers applications well beyond a clinical setting to include applications in the fields of catalysis, photonics and sensors. Antibacterial filters and coatings using metal-based (i.e., silver-based) technologies however suffer several shortcomings including, just to name a few, long-term antibacterial performances and stability, development of bacterial resistance, or scalability to an industrial setting. Therefore, an improved filter or coating is needed.